Finding the right candidate can be stressful and always comes with a little risk. If you prepare well enough, you can improve your chances of finding that right person that will work well with your practice goals and operations, and fit into the culture of the practice.

How to hire a Medical Practice Manager

1. Know what you are looking for

Create a detailed list of exactly what you are looking for in a candidate. Work with your key decision-makers to make a comprehensive listing of what is most important to each individual and begin to prioritize those qualities. By making a determination of the exact needs of your practice by speaking with all parties, including partners and key staff members is essential. If you are replacing a manager who has been with the practice for a long time, this can also provide you with a platform to create a list of what you feel was handled successfully, as well as to revise and revamp the role based upon the current needs of your practice. From this point, you will want to prioritize the most important aspects and components of the position prior to creating your search.

2. Create Specific Targeted Ads

Advertise for the candidate and create an ad. Attracting the best possible candidate is the next crucial step in the hiring process. Making your ad too general and non-specific will generate a lot of interest from unqualified applicants and can slow down the overall process. Making your ad as specific as possible is more likely to bring out the best possible candidates that fit the description. The next key step is to make sure that you place the ad in the best possible advertisement location. Simply sticking to a local newspaper is limiting and non-specific reaching a variety of folks seeking employment. You may want to consider advertising within a specialty specific on-line forum to target your candidate, or a format specific to the industry such as the MGMA to reach the best possible candidates that have both experience in the industry and in the exact position that you are looking for.

3. Build a Healthy Pool to Start Screening

Setting up an online forum for candidates to submit their resumes will save you time and energy. Oftentimes you can prescreen right from this point and can begin to familiarize yourself with the candidate and weed out without printing the resume or receiving multiple faxed resumes (e.g. reviewing salary requirements, most recent work history etc…). It is important to ensure that you have a healthy pool of candidates to consider up front, but work toward making a short-list through handling an initial phone interview. If their phone etiquette is lacking, or their tone isn’t inappropriate or unprofessional, your time on the phone was well spent, because you saved yourself time vs. an in-person interview.

4. Interview Preparation & Setup

Before the interview, prepare well in advance before what your standard questions will be, and they are specific and relevant to your practice. Have a job description on hand that clearly defines the position and use this as your guide in making a clear evaluation with your candidate’s skill set and experience. Schedule the interview to last 1-2 hours if possible so you can introduce the potential candidate to staff, which will allow for feedback both from the staff, and the candidate. Ask the candidate for their thoughts from initial introductions to the practice and its staff. This can prove to be quite insightful and can allow you to make a more informed decision.